I heard the saying, "life of Riley" when someone was talking about my cat, and I wondered what the origin of the expression is. The only thing I can think of is that it comes from the name of someone who was pampered and lazy, a king for example.
The phrase is frequently said to have originated in the words of a song, but although many songs of the late 19th and early 20th centuries feature a person called Riley or Reilly, none has been identified as furnishing a clear source for the exact phrase. However, the supposedly historical figure of William Reilly or Riley , an Irishman who eloped with his sweetheart and was saved from execution by her declaration that she had gone with him voluntarily, featured in several popular 18th- and 19th-century ballads of which Riley and Colinband,?
He has his Colleen Bawn out on a farm [etc. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. I always wanted my life to be that way, and it became that way. I liked it because it was like my life coming back together. When the father arrived at the hospital, he was told that Andrew Dossi was in surgery, but the wounds were not life-threatening.
Now, it immediately occurred to Davy that he had never in his whole life had all the plums he wanted at any one time. Dean Swift was indeed a misanthrope by theory, however he may have made exception to private life. We shall recover again some or all of the steadfastness and dignity of the old religious life. Many of these would have migrated to look for a better life in America and some of them would have found it - and hence lived the life of Riley. The phrase was much used in the military, especially in WWI.
The first known citation in that context is in a letter from a Sergeant Leonard A. In the letter Monzert wrote that he and his pals were 'living the life of Reilly'. Other similar letters from US servicemen claimed to have been living the life of Reilly while at war in France. How much truth there was in the letters and how much was propaganda to reassure the folks back home isn't clear. With hindsight we can be sure that any soldier's life during the First World War was no picnic.
It included in the chorus "Is that Mr. Reilly, of whom they speak so highly? Like most other Irish songs of the era, it played to the Irish audience - this one with a dash of anti-Chinese racism thrown in for luck the Chinese were 'Reilly's' principal competitors for manual work in the USA at the time :. I'll have nothing but Irishman on the police Patrick's Day will be the fourth of July; I'll get me a thousand infernal machines, To teach the Chinese how to die,.
See more words from the same year. Accessed 12 Nov. Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for life of Riley. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! Log in Sign Up. Save Word.
Definition of life of Riley.
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